Hayley drives out into the fields of the 25000 hectare cotton farm on which her family lives in north-west New South Wales. The window’s are damp from the first rain they have seen in months There’s not much to do in the outback. Just outside of Andamooka, the locals use this to do doughnuts, burnouts and drive their 4WD vehicles up and down the one hill that surrounds the town Land clearing in process, one last tree remains First glimpses of the dirt mounds which make up the visual landscape of DIY mining culture in outback South Australia Axe has taken time off work to work on his claim in Andamooka, searching for opal. They haven’t had a good discovery all year, but they continue to search regardless A thin veil of water covers a salt lake in outback South Australia Sally works in environmental regeneration, primarily as a seed collector and propagator. Here she collects seeds from an aquatic species on the border of a housing estate in Melbourne’s northern suburbs A bird flies across the paddock of a forestry region in Victoria. I often wonder what a life this must be – to continuously settle in these trees only to have them harvested months later, and then start again Lembit holding a chicken in his central Victorian backyard Agricultural fields expanding into the horizon. Of the ten largest farms on the planet, eight exist within Australia Hayley’s sibling, Jaymi, rides on the back of the trailer kicking up dust as we travel through their 25000 hectare cotton farm laying pipes for irrigation In winter, a home sits nestled amongst the trees in an area of country Victoria that would be completely decimated by bushfires the following year
When I was young, my dad would beckon me out to the verandah whenever a storm rolled in. We would stand there, breathing in the humidity and listening to the birds as they organised themselves for the big rain ahead.
In the years since, we have experienced some of the longest and most significant droughts ever recorded on this continent. Decades of resource mismanagement and the looming climate crisis have segregated our communities along political lines and we are stuck in a position where saving either the economy or the environment seems like an impossible, binary choice. The small innocent interactions with environment and weather that I experienced as a child have been replaced with a sense of foreboding for that which is to come.
This series is born out of a sense of frustration, driven by an acknowledgement that I hold no answers. All that I can do is witness and wait.
‘here starts the summer dry‘ collects stories from across the continent featuring farmers, miners, horticulturalists, friends and family. These worlds have been interwoven through imagery that dissects national myth and the ways in which we relate to the natural landscape through language and culture. These stories take form as an ever-expanding impressionistic narrative that blurs lines between documentation and personal outlook. A series ongoing, I’m not quite sure it will ever end.
I acknowledge the sovereignty of the traditional custodians of the land on which this work has been made: the Weilwan, Gamilaraay, Kokatha, Woiwurrung and Wurundjuri people, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
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I am a photographer and filmmaker living in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia. I work in photography through writing, exhibitions, content creation and teaching. In my art practice I work with still and moving image to study the overlaps between environmental and human spheres of influence, and the impacts these relationships have on culture.